Age - How old are you now? When you started your online diary?
I'm 51… sort of a Grandma Moses of online journals. I've been "live" on Mad In Pursuit since July '99, really a very short time. I decided to take the leap to an online journal the prior December and began accumulating material, but it took me 6 months to figure out the mechanics.
Marital Status?
Married, for the second time. For 6 years, even though the love affair began in 1976.
Occupation - What kind of work do you do?
On my good days I'm a corporate revolutionary in a large organization. The rest of the time I'm the servant leader (ok, reluctant manager) of 30 planners and internal consultants.
Hobbies - What do you like to do, besides keep this diary?
We travel and collect ancient and ethnic artifacts. My life as a traveler is an important theme of my site.
Location - Where are you from? Where are you now?
I live in the Northeast, originally from the Midwest.
Why did you start writing your diary online?
In December 1999 I went to South America and kept a trip diary as usual. I was surprised at how angry I was about crap at work. It gushed onto the pages. When I got home I figured I should keep going.
At the same time I had an impulse to gather up everything I'd ever written: drafts of novels and false starts, notes, an old diary from a trip to Spain in 1968, a wrenching journal from the torrid summer of 1970, bits from a writing course I took in 1972, a college notebook I'd somehow managed to keep since 1969. I became intrigued by my own history and the forgotten creative side of myself. When I went to search the internet for advice on writing journals, I discovered online diaries. I was shocked. I had this horrifying chill, all the worse for being utterly fascinated. I was drawn, like a moth to flame. It was insane. It was delicious. It was life on the edge. I had to do it.
How much email feedback to you recieve from your diary? Is it mainly positive or negative?
I don't get nearly enough. Come on and write me, you lazy bums. I want feedback on my writing, on my graphics, on how my site could be improved.
The feedback I do get has been positive. It gives me an incredible buzz. At work I'm the "change-agent-in chief" — a candidate for "most hated." Having people discover and relate to my site is a powerful antidote and helps stoke up my courage. Finding fellow artisans and memoirists draws me into new communities where I don't always have to be pushing the unpopular causes.
Has your motivation changed over time?
At the beginning, I was interested in pure journalling: my daily thoughts thrown into the global electronic soup. But, surprise, surprise, my daily life wasn't that interesting. And yet immediacy is important to this art form. So I began connecting past and present. The best of my journal entries make a bridge between my worries of the day and memories of the past. For me, finding patterns in my life creates meaning.
On the flip side, the trip diaries I posted at the beginning were very "in the moment," but they were (by internet standards) old. I'm posting a new "travelers tale" now on a crazy trip we took through Pakistan and western China. Instead of giving you my verbatim trip diary, I'm rewriting it as a serialized memoir from the perspective of today. It's really cool.
How has the diary changed your life?
I like myself better.
Has your diary ever gotten you in trouble?
I live on the icy edge that it might one day.
Do you have any favorite entries?
I picked out a few that would help people get to know me.
Travel tales: that crazy trip to Pakistan & China and some adventure travel philosophy
Who I am now: Anything but old; my taste in movies; how I live (1 & 2); life lessons
Who I was back when: state of my social life; living through 1969
What do you look for in an online journal, as a reader?
Tell me a good story without being long-winded. Use basic design principles: tiny type stretched across the width of the screen sends me running. Blend the pictures in with the text (I'm too lazy to seek out 'galleries.').
